As outdoor participation soars, what will Britain’s mountains look like in another 25 years?

Britain’s growing love of the outdoors since the covid-19 pandemic should be celebrated - but investment in mountain landscapes has to keep pace if these beautiful, wild places are to remain accessible for generations to come. That is the message from the British Mountaineering Council’s (BMC) charity, the Access and Conservation Trust, which is marking its 25th anniversary by highlighting this standpoint.

Visits to England’s wild places have risen from an estimated 2.9 billion in 2009/10 to four billion in 2025/26, with almost seven in ten adults now spending time in green spaces at least once a week. Hill and mountain walking has become one of the UK’s most popular activities, with 3.58 million regular participants, even outperforming football (2 million regular participants), according to Sport England’s Active Lives survey.

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Image credit: www.thebmc.co.uk